People Ain’t Isht: Racists Burn Down Home Of Swirl Family In Iowa

We can’t believe this kind of thing is still going on in 2013. An Iowa family had their home vandalized and burned and based on the racial slurs the vandals used, it’s all because the family had a white mom and black dad!

Vandals in Iowa spray painted racist slurs on an interracial couple’s home and set it on fire, police said.
Shelly Owens returned home to find the house in flames.

“They wrote the ‘N-word’ all over my walls,” Owens told KETV. “This is against me, I guess, and it’s a hate crime.”

Owens lived with fiance Kevin Durham and the couple’s biracial children in a diverse neighborhood in Council Bluffs.
“I’m very angry,” Owens said. “I’m just fortunate that my kids were in school and that we weren’t home.”

The first 911 call came in at 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday. Firefighters found the bedroom in flames and smoke poured through the rest of the house.

Council Bluffs Fire Marshal Curtis McKeon told the Daily News the fire was set inside the bedroom. The family dog escaped unharmed.